Technical gazette, Vol. 28 No. 5, 2021.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.17559/TV-20200508110940
Application of Thermogravimetry for Determination of Carbon Content in Biomass Ash as an Indicator of the Efficiency of the Combustion Process
Milan Protić*
; University of Niš, Faculty of Occupational Safety, Čarnojevića 10A, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Ana Miltojević
; University of Niš, Faculty of Occupational Safety, Čarnojevića 10A, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Bojana Zoraja
; University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Miomir Raos
; University of Niš, Faculty of Occupational Safety, Čarnojevića 10A, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Ivan Krstić
; University of Niš, Faculty of Occupational Safety, Čarnojevića 10A, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Abstract
The determination of the amount of residual carbon in biomass ash is important not only for the assessment of the efficiency of biomass fuel combustion but also as one of the criteria for the estimation of biomass ash potential use. In this paper carbon content in biomass ash was analysed by applying two methods: total organic carbon analysis (TOC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in an inert (N2) and oxidizing (O2) atmosphere. The amount of inorganic (carbonate) carbon can be directly calculated from the TGA curve and the obtained results are in a good agreement with the ones obtained using TOC analyser. On the other hand, the quantitative determination of organic and elemental carbon by TGA is not straight-forward since the temperature range of their oxidation overlaps with dehydration temperature of portlandite that is a constituent of biomass ash. It can be concluded that a basic version of the thermogravimetric analyzer can be used for the determination of inorganic carbon in ash samples, but for total organic carbon determination, it is recommended to use hyphenated techniques, for example, TGA-MS or TGA-FTIR that allows quantitation of evolved gases (CO2 and H2O).
Keywords
ash; biomass; carbon content; thermogravimetry; TOC
Hrčak ID:
261357
URI
Publication date:
15.8.2021.
Visits: 3.713 *